Rockfellow Group and "Hurt Butt" Buttress

Artist: Jerry Cagle
“I do not photograph what is in front of me. I photograph what is inside of me”
Jerry Cagle (1952 – Indiana, Pennsylvania), a cytotechnologist (B.S., CT, ASCP) in a former incarnation, suffering a late-life epiphany, found himself propelled along a dramatically different trajectory than that of his chosen profession. He landed abruptly in the netherworld of photography and has subsequently been consumed by the "dark art".
Since starting on his new path in late 2012, his work has been exhibited at several local galleries including the prestigious Art Institute at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.
An “emerging member” of ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers), he is primarily self-taught. Unhampered by a "formal" education in the photographic arts, he diligently studies his craft, drawing upon a wide array of resources in order to appropriately apply not only the technical but, most importantly, both the visceral and ethereal facets of his vision. Judiciously employing out-of-favor techniques such as soft-focus and intentional camera movement, he seeks to capture the essence of his subjects as he experiences them, as opposed to creating a simple record. He will, at times, fearlessly embrace abstraction, but he also generates more traditional work, often with a purposefully anachronistic, tactile feel. Rocks, whether incorporated into an Ancestral Pueblo people’s structure or (more commonly) as they have evolved “in-situ”, water, and trees figure conspicuously in much of his work. Entropy, transience, and imperfection, as expressed in the Japanese aesthetic of "wabi-sabi" and in their more unvarnished manifestations are also common themes.
Such diverse artists as Aaron Siskind, Ansel Adams, Sebastiao Salgado, Keith Carter, Craig Childs, Edward S. Cutis, Gillian Welch, Kate Breakey, Tony Sweet, Steve Earle, Wallace Stegner, Sean Kernan, The Beatles, and Clarence H. White influence his work, either directly or indirectly.
Widely known as a singularly maladroit rock climber/outdoor adventure enthusiast, he draws heavily upon those experiences and unabashedly abuses his camera in service of his life’s goal to strengthen and foster people’s connection with the earth and its unique treasures in the hope that others will be inspired to take positive action thereby ensuring that future generations will not be denied the same opportunities for the life affirming experiences that an intimate congress with the earth yields.
Living and working in Tucson, Arizona, the Southwest is his studio. He can regularly be found in hot pursuit of monsoon storms, dust devils, and evocative light with his dangerously charming, painfully handsome, astoundingly articulate Australian Kelpie, Booker.